fish to water & birds to the sky
by Dr. Vamoosi
Summary: "Sakura-chan!" Sakura had had her eyes closed, her legs folded under her, but at Aoi's call she raised her head. Aoi bounced on the balls of her feet and stretched her arms overhead. "Sakura-chan, I'm bored!" [DR IF SPOILERS]


Sometimes it got a little much to look at Sakura in her quiet calm and think, well, we're some of the survivors. It put a restless itch in Aoi's muscles and a rush in her blood and she was never very good at saying no to that in the first place.

"Sakura-chan!" Sakura had had her eyes closed, her legs folded under her, but at Aoi's call she raised her head. Aoi bounced on the balls of her feet and stretched her arms overhead. "Sakura-chan, I'm bored!"

"I apologize." There was an end of a smile on Sakura's face, and she moved to look back down. Aoi punched her arm gently.

"Don't sass me," Aoi said, still rocking on her feet. "C'mon, let's wrestle! I can take you!" She punctuated it with a few more playful punches, things that Sakura could probably hardly feel. Sakura looked at her with eyebrows raised. Aoi put her fists up in front of her like boxers she'd seen on tv once (a whole life ago, maybe), hopped back a few steps.

"What, you think you're so tough!" Aoi crooned. When the smile on Sakura's face turned up brighter, Aoi grinned wide. "Or are ya scared?"

Sakura pushed herself to her feet, and when she squared her shoulders and widened her stance, Aoi whooped and ran at her.

Sakura held back - she always did, when they wrestled, she matched Aoi's strength, let Aoi overpower her and run circles around her and laugh as she did. Aoi made big shows of tugging Sakura to the ground or landing a hint, throwing her head back and laughing and tallying points, growling when Sakura resisted. She ducked under Sakura's arm and behind her back, jumped up and wrapped her arms around Sakura's shoulders - Sakura grabbed her by a forearm and the back of her shirt and swung her up over her head, catching her on the other side, and Aoi squealed and the impact of her back on Sakura's hands forced breathless laughter out of her. She wriggled back down to the ground and crawled between Sakura's legs and gave herself enough distance to take a breath before it all started again.

Aoi liked the ache that crept into her muscles like ink bleeding into paper. She liked the prickle of energy and the run of sweat down her skin, liked the breathlessness and the adrenaline. It had been three years since (three years and some 41 days, Ishimaru would say) and the world was still a mess with howling winds and clouds of dust and jagged red graffiti, and they left what shelter they had as little as possible. Aoi hadn't seen more than a cup of water for ages, they hadn't run on grass for longer - this was all they had, roughhousing like cubs. She liked getting her joints moving, working on something that kept her distracted. And, god, she liked seeing Sakura like it all - she never beamed wide and bright like Aoi, but her eyes sparked like flint on steel and her breath came with this upward energy and she smiled calm and honest and breathless and Aoi wanted to see that every day. She wanted to stay grinning and out of breath forever, defiantly alive, with sleepy calm and Sakura's low secretive laugh and her downcast looks of delight that left Aoi wanting to grin back and reach up and press their smiles together. Her head echoed with the promise of years and decades.

Aoi's shoulders smacked flat against the ground when Sakura pinned her, only the slightest hint of a smirk showing on Sakura's face. Aoi laughed through her panting breaths. "Point for you, Sakura-chan."

Sakura's hands were on her shoulders, her hair hanging down around them in tangled curtains. Aoi's laughs tapered down to puffs of giggles, breaths that had strands of hair swinging, quiet enough that she could hear the small noises of Sakura's laugh. Close enough she could touch the shape of Sakura's smile. They breathed heavy in unmatched tempos and Aoi's stomach spun in the rush of a tidal wave.

"Sakura," she said, because her mind was snowfield blank and it was all that came to her tongue, "Marry me?"

In the shadowed spot they'd created, Aoi saw Sakura's lips part and her eyelashes sweep down in a blink. Something nearly like shock, but not quite, not like she had never expected it but like she thought Aoi already knew.

"Yes," she said, as though it had been clear all along. It probably had. "Of course."

"Okay." Aoi wet her lips and swallowed and when she blinked up at Sakura, a smile spread out across her face that she saw mirrored on Sakura's face. Some sweet, helium-high giggles bubbled up in Aoi's throat. "Okay. Good!"

She finally scooched out from under Sakura just to scramble up to her feet again. Beaming wide and flushed and feeling like she could run a marathon every day for the rest of her life, she said, "C'mon, Sakura-chan, best two out of three!"

Sakura pushed herself up and squared her shoulders, and Aoi laughed clear and loud before she ran at her.


End file.
